Redemption
by Danielle Smiley-Face
Summary: My version of what happened after the second season finale "Bloodlines".


Redemption  
by Danielle :-)  
  
Author's Note: It's a long time until October 17 and the third season premiere. Two days after my birthday- nice present. : - ) At least they aren't torturing us til November again... I had to get my ideas down about what happens with this explosion thing- who lives, who dies, etc. No matter how much I would love to, I do NOT work on The Pretender in any way.  
Disclaimer: The Pretender belongs to NBC and I am just borrowing them in order to help me wait for their ending to this explosion.  
  
~~~~~  
  
10, 9, 8...  
"Jarod! Jarod, get out! There's a bomb!"  
3, 2, 1...  
Everyone stood transfixed as they heard the explosion.  
  
~~  
  
Sydney was praying that God could forgive him and spare Broots, Miss Parker, and Jarod.  
Broots was thinking of Debbie, soon to be left alone in the world. He could only hope that Miss Parker might live to take care of her.  
Willie the Sweeper was thinking that getting blown up wasn't in his job description.  
Mr. Parker was thinking that there would be no Parkers left and that control of the Centre would go to the likes of Mr. Lyle.  
Mr. Raines was thinking of all the evil projects he wouldn't be able to complete.  
Miss Parker was still furious with Jarod but was hoping she could get to Heaven, where her mother would surely be waiting for her.  
Jarod was thinking that he couldn't die- not yet. He still had so many people to help and his family to find.  
Angelo was in the room Sydney and Broots had just left staring at the scene unfolding only a few floors below him. He ran from the room.  
  
~~  
  
"Angel!" Miss Parker saw her father running towards her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sydney diving for Jarod. Just before her father knocked her to the floor and shielded her body with his, she saw fear in his eyes for the first time in her life.  
Jarod had been planning to protect Miss Parker even if it meant that he would die but then Sydney knocked him to the floor. The last thing he saw was Mr. Parker running towards his daughter and that surprised him.  
  
~~  
  
Everyone felt the increasing heat as the fireball got closer. Their section of SL-27 was the last it reached. After it blew over, around, and under the seven people in it's path, it quickly disappeared. It petered out before it could travel up the stairway Miss Parker had followed Jarod down, sparing other levels and lives.  
Angelo ran down, almost crying from feeling his friends' last emotions.  
"Debbie... Debbie!" He muttered over and over to himself as he went to the still heap that was Broots.  
"Angelo!" Jarod said as he pulled himself out from under Sydney. He checked his lifelong mentor's pulse and sighed. He put aside his grief to help Angelo with Broots.  
He felt a thin, thready pulse and saw Broots' chest slowly moving up and down. He knew he'd have to get him to the hospital a.s.a.p (as soon as possible- he'd just recently learned that one as well as others like WBS- not a tv station, write back soon). It looked like he had mostly first and second degree burns.  
"Friends in explosion! Help them!" Angelo said, looking at Jarod. Jarod took it to mean that Angelo had called for help on his way down.  
Jarod heard a grunt behind him and saw Miss Parker extracting herself out from under her father's limp body. She looked around in amazement and her gaze finally rested on Jarod. She was too shaken up to hate him right then.  
"Sydney?" Jarod shook his head.  
While this was going on, Angelo disappeared.  
"Help me with Broots. He needs to get to a hospital. You can kill me later."  
Miss Parker did as she was told and together they carried him up to SL-26 and the elevator.  
"I think Angelo called for help."  
Miss Parker didn't reply. Once they reached ground level, the carried him into the lobby and gently laid him on the floor. Already they could hear sirens.  
People were staring at them, the unconscious man who looked like he'd been in a fire, the man in black, and Miss Parker, her hair and clothes a mess. They were nervous. If there was a fire, the alarms would be going off. Wouldn't they?? Some of the people hurried outside just in case.  
The paramedics rushed in and Jarod filled them in with all this medical mumbo-jumbo Miss Parker didn't understand. She headed back downstairs. After Jarod had given then Broots' home phone number to call Debbie, the ambulance sped away. Then Jarod got in the elevator.  
  
~~  
  
He found Miss Parker standing over her father. "They're all dead." Even with everything she had recently found out, it surprised her that she didn't feel even the slightest bit sad that he was gone.  
Miss Parker and Jarod looked at each other, each asking the silent question, "what now?"  
Jarod broke the silence, "With both your father and Mr. Raines gone, the Centre will probably fall apart. No one will know what to do with the two power positions empty."  
Miss Parker smiled scornfully at his wording, "I can leave."  
"We can all leave." Jarod corrected, "Do you know how many children there are here who need to be reunited with their families?"  
"I don't hate you anymore, Jarod. Twenty minutes ago I wanted to kill you. I don't know why... but now I don't."  
"Almost dying will do that to you, Miss Parker. We should bury Sydney next to Jacob."  
  
~~  
  
Angelo came back carrying a cardboard box. It was full of DSA's. Miss Parker stared at him in amazement but Jarod smiled knowingly.  
"I have a friend who's a spy. She's in Chicago and--"  
"A friend?" Miss Parker broke in.  
"Yes, Miss Parker. She is only a friend." He laughed at her display of jealousy, which caused her to frown.  
"I'll call her and she can help us close down the Centre and find families. Come on, Angelo." When he seemed to be holding back, Jarod said "Please."  
"Please come." Miss Parker asked, causing Angelo to smile and her to pray that he, and not Mr. Lyle, was her brother.  
They stopped by to tell the Director about the explosion. She was shocked when they told her it was in SL-27 ("There are only 26 Sub Levels!!") but Jarod told her how to get there and she seemed to believe him, especially seeing Mr. Parker's daughter by his side.  
The three of them- Jarod, Miss Parker, and Angelo- got in Miss Parker's car and headed to the hospital to check on Broots and call Jarod's friend.  
  
~~~~~  
  
A YEAR LATER  
  
"It's almost time!" Danielle said. Danielle was Jarod's spy friend, now Miss Parker's best friend and Broots' fiancee.  
"I think I'm going to be sick." Was the reply.  
"Nonsense, Park! Ben'll be here in a minute to walk you down the aisle." Danielle preferred to call her nervous friend Park rather than use her first name.  
  
~~~  
  
A lot had happened in the past year...  
The Centre was closed forever, and in fact they had demolished it a few weeks ago.  
They reunited all the children and now grown-up children of the Centre with their families.  
Jarod had found his family.  
Everyone got the answers they were looking for, and even some they hadn't.  
Jarod confirmed that Ben was Miss Parker's father and Angelo her brother.  
After four months of extremely hard work, Jarod fixed the cure Sydney had for Angelo to make him well permanently. He was now known only as Timmy.  
Danielle kept an ear to the ground and found out that Mr. Lyle was in a hospital in Denver. By the time she got there he had died after gangrene originating where his thumb had once been spread throughout his system.  
But Brigitte had been with him and was immediately arrested. She got 17 years in a maximum security prison for her role in the Centre.  
Danielle and Broots fell in love, as unlikely a match as it may seem, and were eagerly planning their wedding.  
And Jarod and Miss Parker fell in love and were getting married in...  
"Five minutes! Hurry! Is my hair almost done, Margaret?"  
Jarod's mother smiled, "Just give me one more minute."  
Jarod's sister Emily came in with Ben and announced that everyone was ready to begin. Jarod was waiting ("nervously") at the alter along with his two best men, Timmy and Broots. Emily and Danielle were bridesmaids. Miss Parker hadn't been able to decide who should be her matron of honor so finally she decided she wouldn't have one!  
  
~The End 


End file.
